


Dark Rivers

by Commander_Guts



Category: N/A - Fandom
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-01-08
Updated: 2017-01-13
Packaged: 2018-09-15 19:20:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,109
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9252227
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Commander_Guts/pseuds/Commander_Guts
Summary: The top Center of Disease Control company "accidentally" releases a serum that was intended to cure cancer and other sicknesses to the public. People start to disappear, others turn into ghouls. The son of the Ceo is tasked in getting to the bottom of the outbreak but finds himself injected with a high class soldier version of the virus.Despite all that is happening, Deyman's father seems to become more and more distant, leaving Demyan suspicious of his father. With a team of extraordinary soldiers, Demyan must solve the mystery of his fathers company, and stop the human race from becoming ghouls.





	1. The Beginning

** _Chapter 1_ **

 

     The night was cold… too cold for anyone such as myself to want to be training, but I had to. This was the final exam, our instructors liked to make their recruits play a game called “Hunters.” The game was simple, find the enemy team and neutralize them. When I say neutralize, I mean beat them to a pulp or tranquilize them. I guess expecting any less from Ex-KGB instructors would be foolish. I wanted this though, my father runs a multi-billion dollar company called Black Cross Medical, specializing in disposing and treating people infected with the Seth virus. He and a supporting mercenary company rounded up the infected and placed them in the outskirts of Derry City. I wanted to go in but according to him I was too “unqualified” to go. I don’t really get to see him much, he’s always gone on a business trip or locked away in his office. When I do see him though his brown curly hair is usually in his face. He keeps his hair over one eye to cover a knife wound he sustained while in “the field.” Mom used to call it his lady killer look, well that is she used to before she disappeared. There had been a many recent number of cases lately of people just going missing in the middle of the night. It didn't really seem all that important… until my mother ended up missing.

     My father took her disappearance hard and started drinking again after he had not for 6 years. She would be so disappointed in him for going back to it after all these years. Who am I to judge though? I stopped going to my classes and started a course down a path that would lead me nowhere fast. I didn't really give a damn though, not until one night I ended up with a gun in front of my head.  A few buddies and I got drunk at a bar and thought it would be funny to hit on a couple of girls from a well known biker gang just for fun. As you can already imagine, a couple of guys didn't like that. They broke a couple of bottles and decided to head our way. Of course we were too drunk to realize what we were doing, we were just a couple of guys trying to take our minds off of our shitty lives.

     My buddy Don was that first to receive a blow to the back of the head, Wulf was next. I had turned around just in time to receive a fist to the nose. The gang drove us outside and continued to beat our asses. We swore we were going to die when the leader pulled out a gun and pointed it to my head. I was ready to die though, life had taken the only thing that meant something to me. I embraced my near future with courage, but it seems like someone else had something in mind. Before the gang leader could pull the trigger, a knife flew into his neck. He did what any idiot would do after being stabbed in the neck, he pulled it out, bleeding to death almost instantly.

     I looked around to see who exactly my savior was, but saw no one. The gang members friends decided to go look for whoever did this to their leader. They proceeded down the alley to look for whoever did this not knowing what to expect. I could have ran, but I couldn't force my legs to move. I was paralyzed, left wanting to know what was happening. My friends were lying on the ground next to me knocked unconscious barely holding on to life. I should’ve ran and called for help or told someone what was going on, but I couldn't. I heard someone get thrown into a trashcan and some scuffles coming from the shadowy alley. I strained my eyes to see what was going on, it was hard to seeing how I was just beaten up and had sustained a black eye. Suddenly I felt a hand grab me by the shoulder and pull me back down to the ground. I tried to see who it was but they flashed me with a flashlight and kept looking over their shoulder signaling someone. Before I knew it a cloth bag was over my head and I was zip tied and thrown into the back of a truck.

     I listened to the men laughing and speaking in Russian as they made sharp turns and slammed on the breaks. I could feel myself sliding backwards towards the door as if they were going up hill. After about a good two hours of driving the van finally came to a stop. I heard the men get out of the truck and then open the back door. “This is your stop,” one of them said as he drug me out by the feet. “Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs hoping someone would hear. They all looked at each other and started laughing in unison. One of them then hit me in the nose with the butt of his gun. I fell to the ground in pain as blood started gushing from my nose. “Fuck! What the hell is wrong with you?” “What is this too much for you too? I thought you didn’t care about life anymore?”

     At first his comment meant nothing to me, but then I started to think, how did he know I no longer cared about life? Who are these people? Why did they only take me and not my friends? Too many questions were coursing through my pounding skull. “What do you mean by that?” I asked trying not to make eye contact so that he couldn’t read me. For a moment there was silence and then he snickered. “We know about your mother Demyan.” When I heard this my heart skipped a beat and all I could do was tear up. “We know everything about about you. How do you Americans say it… ah yes, you think this is a fucking game? We’ve been watching you, studying you, analyzing your every move. We’ve been doing it for so long that we’ve even put you on a schedule. That’s how easy you are to read, you do the same thing every single day.” What about my friends?” At this point all I cared about was what was going to happen to them.

     “Dead maybe, does it really matter? Not like they tried to prevent this from happening.” he responded shrugging his shoulders. I tried to stand up to look him face to face but was kicked in the back of the knee and then kneed in the stomach. I spit up blood and cried out in pain. The cold air blowing in my face didn’t make it better. “So what… now then?” I managed to spit out. “Now you do it our way Demyan.” the man said kicking me in the face.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Demyan and his team have just completed training and receive their first mission. They must investigate the CDC facility which has just created an outbreak.

_**Chapter 2** _

 

     That was the past though, this is now my present, my life. My goal is to finish this training on top and then return to the city, that’s all I want. My fire team and I started to make our advance to the enemy team's base. We hadn’t seen them since the training op launched and we were afraid we might be being watched. We took to the treeline though, it seemed like the smartest thing to do since we were being hunted. There was a rustle in the bush and I signaled for my team to halt. I slowly moved forward to get a better look at who was in front of us, it was an enemy. He must have strayed from his path to try t-*SNAP* “Hehehe they’ll never see it coming.” The bastard wasn’t lost at all, he was setting a trap for us. I signaled for my team to move around him so that we could flank him. When they were in position one of my teammates Jack, walked out from behind his tree. The guy instantly looked up and started reaching for his weapon. I jumped off the ledge I was waiting on and tackled him to the ground. He rolled me off and jumped up trying to run away, but I swept him back down to the ground. I quickly jumped on top of him and started pounding his face into the ground.

     After I felt like he should be unconscious I zip tied him and marked his location on our map. I gave the signal for my team to regroup so we could continue pushing forward but we were stopped by a signal flare someone shot in the sky. Not too long after the alarm sounded and we heard someone screaming over the intercom, “Report to your deployment zones, I repeat, report to your deployment zones.” We all shared confused stares before picking up the POW and rushing back to thee barracks. We were cut off by one of the armored vehicles heading the same way. “What company are you with?” “We’re with Echo company sir.” “Well then hop in, I’m headed that way.” We all hopped in without hesitation seeing how the whole training center was on high alert. No one spoke on the way there, I wasn’t sure if it was the fact that we were all fatigued, or that we were wondering what would happen next.

     Suddenly I felt as if my skin was on fire, my head started to pound and my breathing got faster. What the hell is wrong with me? I sipped some water from my camel back trying to cool off but it didn’t work. My vision started to get all blurry, next thing I knew I was on the ground, my vision fading to black. I saw what looked like two boys playing by a river, having a sword fight. I couldn’t make out their faces, in fact I noticed they were blurred out. There was a third person though, a man standing in a treeline. He wasn’t moving just standing there, this didn’t make any sense. I tried to call out to the boys but I couldn’t, it seemed I had no voice to warn them. I then awoke from this strange vision with Jack hovering over me. “You okay boss?” he asked helping me up. “Yeah, I’m okay Jack, must be the lack of sleep,” I answered sitting back on the seat. “We’re almost there guys, get ready to dismount!” the driver shouted over the roaring engine.

     The POW still hadn’t awaken from the attack we launched earlier. “Think he’s dead,” Dove said as she kicked his boot. “Hope not, I don’t wanna have to do the paperwork for this guy,” Jack said while chuckling. “You’re such an asshole Jack,” Dove says laughing at his comment. When the truck came to a stop we all hopped out and grabbed the injured  POW out. A medical team ran up to us and grabbed him and put him on a stretcher. “What happened to him?” “Uh well hmm… he didn’t make the cut I guess,” I said shrugging my shoulders. “Right, and I’m the asshole right?” Jack said looking at Dove. “Blow me,” she responded. We shared a brief laugh before being interrupted by our instructor. “Well I’m glad to see you’re all in a good mood, but that’s about to change right now. Our beloved city, Derry, is under attack, but not by just anyone. I don’t really know how to say this so I’m just going to: Demyan, your father’s company had an outbreak with one of their viruses, the result is hundreds of people being infected turning them into…” he went silent after that. “Well turning them into what?” Dove asked with her face full of suspense. He held up a tablet and showed us the live news broadcast of ghouls eating people in the city. “What the fuck are those?” Jack asked grabbing the tablet. “The result of a lethal virus being exposed to innocent people. Demyan, I want you to know that no one here blames you or your father for this,” the  instructor says placing his hand on my shoulder.

     “How did this happen? After so many years of success how did this virus suddenly get released?” I asked taking the tablet into my own hands and watching a woman being ripped apart by these creatures. “I’ll tell you guys on the helicopter ride over there.” “You don’t mea-” Dove started before she was cut off by the pilot. “The birds ready sir, get your guys geared up and prepare for departure!” “You heard the man, hit your barracks get suited up and let’s go!” “YES SIR!” we all shouted in unison. I couldn’t believe it, we were finally going home, but not for the reason we wanted. Ghouls? In Derry of all places, and what is my father going to do about this? All these things were going through my head as we rushed for the barracks. I looked at the faces of my fire team and I could tell they were thinking the same thing as me. When we got to our barracks we quickly threw on our plate carriers, grabbed our M4’s, 8 mags, survival knives, flashlights, side arms, assault packs, medical kits, radio and headsets, and fire starter kits.

     I can’t believe it, we were really about to do this mission. Our first time home in months and it’s for a damn outbreak. When my team was finished gearing up I looked them all in the eyes. “You guys ready for this?” “Ha, as ready as we’ll ever be,” Jack said racking his charging handle back. “Let’s go kill some shit,” Dove said clipping her knife to her plate carrier. “Let’s go wreck these things,” I said leading my team outside to the bird. “Glad you princesses are finally done playing dress up, mount up we’ve got a city to save.” We all mounted the bird and strapped ourselves in. When the bird finally took off, I felt a huge load come off my back.

     “Alright guys pay attention, I don’t like repeating myself. The outbreak took place about five hours ago and quickly spread like a wildfire as you saw. The virus was released by a scientist there by the name of Dr. Osiris, his intentions are still unknown. Our objective is to find him and bring him in for further questioning. His last known location is inside his lab, he sealed it shut while he furthers his research. We don’t know if there are any Ghouls inside the building still. Oh yes from here on out we will not call them infected, we will call them ‘Ghouls.’ Do not get bitten by these things, we don’t need you guys turning. Good luck Echo.” My team looked at each other and nodded.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3_ **

 

 

     After the 5 hour flight we finally made it to the city. “Alright guys, I’m going to drop you guys on top of the facility. Make the dismount quick, I don’t need any of those things jumping on me. You guys ready… too bad. Go! Go! Go!” I quickly attached the fast rope and slid down and started securing the roof top. A couple of ghouls came out of nowhere and started rushing towards me. I put a round in each of their skulls. The rest of my team quickly dismounted and got on line. “Looks like shooting them in the head works,” I told them kicking the ghouls to make sure they were dead. “My god, it’s hard to believe that these things were human not that long ago,” Dove says putting her head down. “Don’t let it get to you, Dove, we came here to do a mission, if we let this get to us then many more people will share the same fate.” She nodded in agreement and we continued to push forward into the facility.

     “Hey Demyan, you still remember your way around this place?” Jack asked while covering our six. “Yeah, I still have a good memory of this place, kinda hard to forget when you spend most of your life in and out of this place. Let’s take the staircase down, and be careful, there could definitely be more of these guys around here.” Dove opened the door and Jack and I immediately cleared he left and right sides of the room. “Clear move up.” We heard some screams coming from the lower levels and we all kinda shared a stare. We regained ourselves though and started to continue downwards. “Avoid the windows on the doors, I don’t want these things to know we’re here.” Dove and Jack nodded making sure to stay in the shadows, the last thing we needed was to be ambushed on a staircase. Suddenly I heard a door get kicked open and someone slamming it shut. They were breathing heavily and crying out in fear. 

     I peeked over the railing to see a red haired woman with a gun trying to keep the door closed. “Oh man, oh fuck, what am I going to do?” she said looking around for something to block the door. We advanced on her position and she quickly looked and pointed her gun. “Who the hell are you guys?” “Lower your weapon or I can assure you your death will be quick,” Jack responded. “Stand down Jack, we can use all the help we can get. We can’t tell you who we are, miss, but I can give you a name.” I said lowering my weapon slowly. “Well I’m sure you’re just some unlucky bastard if you got sent here.” I grinned a bit trying to convince her that we weren’t hostile. “My name is Demyan, my fa-” “Demyan!? No way, you’re back? Have you heard from your father? Sorry, if I can just get some help with this door guys.” Jack and Dove look around and saw some wood lying around from some maintenance work and grabbed them. After placing them in the door and making sure the ghouls couldn’t open it, she holstered her gun. “Thanks guys, my name is Velvet, I’m the Commanding Officer of the Black Cross Medical Security Division. I work closely with your father but he’s away on business. I was on my way to look for Dr. Osiris when these things attacked me. What are you guys doing here?”

     I wasn’t sure if I should tell her we were here for the same reason, what if we had different ideas of what to do with him. Well we were all stuck in this hellhole now and the only way back out would be to secure the Doctor. Before I could answer the ghouls started pounding on the door. “We can’t talk here, follow me to the Doctor’s lab!” Without hesitation we followed down the stairs and through another door. There were dead scientists all over this place. How could such a thing like this happen and no one be prepared for it? The more important question was why my father wasn’t here to do anything about it. “Just through here and we’ll be there,” Velvet said reaching for her key card. We were almost to the door before she was suddenly tackled by two ghouls. “HELP ME!” She cried out trying not to get bitten. Dove grabbed one of the ghouls and threw him off, I grabbed the other. He threw me off of him and let out a loud shriek. I honestly didn’t expect them to be this strong, but then again, the first two I encountered I shot from a distance. I pulled out my knife and swept the monster and stabbed it in the skull. Dove kicked the creature in the knee causing it to break, she then grabbed his neck and broke it.

     “These things are pretty damn strong,” Velvet said as she stood up and swiped her key card. “Well let’s get out of here before more show up, I think that guy was calling for his friends,” Jack said making a break for the door. We all went through and watched more ghouls show up as the door closed and locked behind us. They didn’t seem to be smart enough to open doors or figure how to operate things. Knowing this kind of made me feel better in the sense that I didn’t have to worry about them using the key cards they had on their waists. “How far are we now from the Doctor’s office, Velvet?” “Just right down the hall and on the right. I don’t know what he’s been doing in his lab the entire time, it’s sealed off and we can’t get into it.” “You just leave that to us, pretty lady,” Jack says as he lays out  his breaching equipment. I looked at Dove and signaled for her to cover the rear door. “Velvet, is the lab he’s in airtight?” “Yes it is now that I think about it, if you guys blow that door down it’s going to create a small vacuum.”

     “Alright team listen up, we’re going to blow this door down, but before we do, I need you guys to put on your rebreathers. I don’t need any of us being caught in between the breach and the vacuum.” After we were all set up, I gave Jack the signal to blow the door in. There was a loud bang and shortly after we were swept off of our feet and thrown into the room. I was slammed into a table and the others into a wall. I think Dove hit her head because she was looking down at blood in her hand. Velvet was laying in the back corner of the room, she hadn’t moved for a bit leading me to believe she was unconscious.  “Let’s never do that again guys, shit, I think Velvet is out for the count. Dove, check on her status and tend to that wound of yours, Jack on me, we’re going to secure the doctor.” 

     “I take it you guys are here for this,” a deep voice said from behind a counter. Jack and I sighted in to see Dr. Osiris holding a syringe with the Seth Virus in it. “No doctor, we’re here to bring you in for questioning, we aren’t here for the Seth Virus.” “Demyan, I have been waiting for you to return home, you need to find your father, you need to know the truth,” he says pulling out a remote. He pressed a button on it and a loud siren started going off, we immediately covered our ears trying to muffle the noise. I didn’t even realize the doctor had moved until he was injecting the virus in my neck. “No! What have you done I said pushing him off of me.” “Find your father, everything will fall into place then.” “Fuck, Demyan has been infected,” Jack said backing up towards Dove. “What do we do? Shit, this wasn’t supposed to happen. It was supposed to be a simple grab and go operation.” “Jack, Dove, just leave me here. Let them know what went on and here and tell them you tried to kill me, but I got away. Leave Velvet, I’ll make sure that she’s safe,” I said while taking off my rebreather. “We can’t just leave you here, Demyan, we’ve been through too much together,” Dove says while walking towards me. “You can, and you will. Trust me, I know what I’m doing... Now go, that’s an order!” 

     They both looked at me, their eyes full of hesitation and confusion. There was then a loud banging coming from the hall, followed by a roar. I signaled for them to both get out of here and they grabbed the Doctor and ran. Again, a loud bang followed by a roar. I looked at Velvet and ran over and picked her up. I kicked open a door to a locker room and layed her on the bench. Lucky for us there was two lockers without locks on them. I picked her up and put her inside of it, that’s when I heard the glass doors in the hall shatter, followed by loud footsteps. Whatever the hell that thing was it was coming quick. I quickly ziptied Velvets locker closed and jumped in one myself. Not too long after the creature walked into the lab and started looking around. It was different from all of the others, it was taller and looked to be more muscular. I tried to breathe as faintly as possible so that it wouldn’t hear me. 

     “Where am I?” I heard Velvet groan from her locker. I felt my heart drop as the creature suddenly looked our way and started heading for the door. I heard her gasp as she realized what was coming our way. The creature ripped the door off of the hinges and started looking around the room. It walked to her locker and started to pull on her door furiously, it started to pull harder and harder while it growled. On instinct, I jumped out of my locker and stabbed it in the arm with my knife. It slapped me out of the door and pulled the knife out and dropped it on the floor. “Sin, I’m so sorry,” I heard Velvet cry from her locker. The monster started to walk towards me, clenching its fists in anger. I jumped to my feet and started to run at it, “Might as well go out fighting.” The creature swung, but I ducked and delivered a quick counter uppercut. It roared at me and tried to kick me, but I caught it. The blow would have been enough to injure me if it wasn’t for my armored vest. I swept the creature and broke it’s knee.

     I thought I was actually going to win this fight, but I was wrong. It quickly kicked me with it’s other foot and I flew into a broken pipe. I was now impaled in my lower left side, and the creature was putting it’s knee back into place. My body started to feel like it was on fire and I couldn’t move any of my limbs. My chest felt like it was expanding and my muscles felt like they were tearing. Was this the virus kicking in? Was I turning into one of these damn things now? Next was a killer headache, I felt like my brain was going to paint these walls soon. My heart was beating a million miles an hour and bones felt like they were being altered. I was screaming out in pain from this transformation my body was going through. “God, just fucking kill me already!” I screamed at the creature. It looked at me and then turned around and started walking back to the lockers. I heard Velvet screaming no and telling me to just try to get away. I tried to climb to my feet, trying to force my limbs to move in her direction to save her. “No, kill me instead!” I screamed. The monster started to punch the locker, over and over it kept punching. “60582, 60582!” I heard Velvet scream at the top of her lungs. “My God, Demyan, please remember, 6-0-5-8-2!” The monster punched one more time and Velvet went silent.

     Suddenly all I could hear was my heartbeat and my vision going blurry. My eyes then closed and my heart stopped, “This is the end,” I thought to myself taking my last breath. Moments later I awoke to the creature throwing me into another wall and roaring at the top of it’s lungs. I felt different though, I felt stronger, I could see… better. I even felt lighter. This was all too strange to me, just a moment ago I was dead, but now I’m not? The creature started to run at me and then threw a punch when it got closer. On instinct I caught it’s blow! I then punched the monster and it tumbled back, “I am stronger.” The creature jumped back to it’s feet and stood there. I ran over to it and kicked it in the chest. When it fell, I grabbed it by the throat and threw it into a wall. I walked over to it and threw blow after blow to it’s chest and face, it felt good to just fight. It kicked me back and then punched me in the face and tried to bite me. I grabbed it’s mouth stopping it from biting me, it’s teeth were now sinking into my palms causing them to bleed.

     For some reason I just had this extreme feeling of rage. Was this the effects of the Seth Virus? I then locked my hands into place and started to stretch the creature’s mouth open forcing his mouth to split. It shrieked in pain and started to choke me, trying to kill me before I could kill it. I starred the monster in the eye and then ripped it’s mouth open. It dropped me and fell to the floor screaming in pain, blood was pouring all over the floor as it squirmed around. I took out my sidearm and shot it in the head multiple times. I don’t know why, but it just felt so good to kill it. I quickly remembered that Velvet was still in the locker, I ran back through the lab to get to the locker room. I saw blood dripping from a dent in the locker. I took out my medkit and started prepping to treat her wounds. “You’re gonna be alright, okay, Velvet,” I said looking at the locker. She was unresponsive, I just kept hoping that she wasn’t dead already.

     I put my hand in the hole and started to pull on the locker, I noticed that the hinges were actually bending. The thought of having super strength made me laugh inside, these type of things just didn’t happen to people. When the door finally broke off from the hinges, I noticed that Velvet had been punctured in the side. I pulled her out and carried her to a table and started cleaning her wounds. She must have fainted from the impact seeing how she was again unconscious. After cleaning up the puncture, I put a cloth over it and wrapped it up to slow the bleeding. I picked up my knife and rifle and then put her on my back and started down the hall to find a safer place. I found another stairwell and decided to head up a couple of floors, after stepping into the hall I noticed that this place looked untouched. This led me to believe that ghouls were unable to climb stairs as well, but what was that thing I fought? The better question is, what am I?

     I found a door that said “Security Office” and thought this might be a nice place to wait for help. I swiped Velvet’s keycard and went inside to lay her down on the floor. I noticed that there was a computer on asking for a username and password. The keyboard had a slot for you to insert a cac card into it, could Velvet’s keycard be put in here? I took it and slid it onto the slot, the computer read the card information and then signed me in. I saw a option to place the building on lockdown and thought to myself, “Maybe this would be the best thing to do right now.” When I clicked on it, it gave me the option to assemble the company's security forces and phone my father. My throat got dry when I read that option, what was I gonna say if he picked up? When I clicked the button it asked for the security pin. I sat back in my chair thinking to myself, “How should I know that?”

     “Don’t suppose you want to wake up and tell me that pin do you?” I said looking at Velvet who was breathing very slowly. “Wait, didn’t you yell something at me? A bunch of numbers when I was pinned to that wall? Dammit, what was it? 60482, I think it was.” I punched that number in and nothing happened. I tried “60582” and the computer processed it and sounded an alarm. The doors all locked and the rooms pressure changed, suddenly I heard ringing on the screen. It rang and rang and rang, but that’s all it did. I almost gave up hope until I heard, “What is it, Velvet?” I walked to the screen slowly and looked down, “F-Father?” There was a long pause, he took off his glasses, his eyes glued to the screen. “Son, is that you? What happened? What’s going on over there? How were you able to get in contact with me?”

     “There was an outbreak father, Velvet is alive, but badly injured. Dr. Osiris has been taken into custody and is on his way to be questioned. He injected me though… w-with the Seth Virus.” “I see, that bastard. I knew he was up to no good, I should have never left the city. Do you feel any different, my son, are you okay at least?” he asked me putting on his glasses. I didn’t know what to think, I haven’t heard from my father in a while, yet the first time we do it’s about an outbreak. “I feel stronger and faster, I even see better too. I think I can also hear a lot farther than I used to, and my reaction time is incredible.” “Just relax, my son, and keep an eye on Velvet. I’ve cancelled the security request and I’m going to send in one of our response teams. I’ll be on the next flight there, stay safe until they arrive.” After that he was gone. All I had was his word that he’ll show up. I don’t know what exactly I could do to stay safe as he said, I guess the best thing to do in this situation is to go to the higher floors and secure a room. 

     I should leave a note for Velvet though, letting her know what I am doing. I don’t need her getting herself killed. I have no doubt though, she’ll find a way to get in contact with me seeing that she is the commander of the security team. After I finished writing the note, I placed it in her hands so that she definitely wouldn’t miss it. I took my sidearm out of my holster and placed it and some ammo next to her. I started to wonder if my team made it out, I turned on my radio and called them. “Demyan!? Is it really you, I knew you’d make it man,” Jack said with a sigh of relief. “Did you and Dove make it out yet?” “No, we’re stuck on the second to top floor, we’re completely boxed in by ghouls. We were able to block the doors, but I don’t know how long that will last.” “Alright, I’m on my way, Jack.” “Just follow the gunshots, Demyan.” 

     I looked at Velvet one last time to make sure I made everything easily accessible for when she came to and then left the room. I kept my weapon at the alert just in case anything decided to chose me for it’s next meal, but it was unusually quiet. There was no roaring, no screaming, just the occasional sounds of lights flickering and automatic doors opening and closing. As I walked back to the staircase, I noticed a company camera in the corner of the room, the red light was still on letting me know that someone had to be watching. Why has no one showed up yet? And what are the local police and military going to do about the outside? I made it to the staircase and opened up the door, looking all around to make sure nothing got the jump on me. I started to run up the stairs trying to make it to my team as fast as possible, the last thing I needed to hear was my team got wiped out. I was making great closure time between me and them seeing as how the Seth virus I came in contact with seemed to be positive. I could hear the ghouls on the floor above growling and pushing at something, “This must be where the fun is,” I said as I kicked the door open. 

     “Dove, Jack, you guys still alive in there?” I said over my radio trying to give them a bit of hope. “Yeah we are, but I think these damn things figured out how to get in the ventilation shafts.” “HEY!” I yelled at the ghouls to draw their attention, “Why don’t you try your luck with me?” They all stopped and looked at me with their white eyes, they seemed to position themselves to run at me. I aimed down my sights and started to drop them with great speed and accuracy, shell casings hitting the floor one after another. I tried to switch magazines, but one of them launched at me and started trying to bite my face. I threw him off and took out my knife, CQC seemed to be the best option at this point. Another Zeke launched at me and I side-stepped him and kicked him in the back of the knee. When he broke down, I planted my knife in his head and twisted it. I felt a pull at my arm and looked to see two of the monsters grabbing at me. I kicked one of them off of me and jumped up drop kicked the other. I rolled backwards and ran back towards the other ghouls. I punched, slashed, and kicked my way through a few of them trying to thin out the crowd. One of them ran at me and threw a quick straight, I side-stepped him, grabbed him by the throat, and slammed him to the ground. I stood up and stomped it’s face so hard that the tiles cracked. The other ghouls stood back and watched as if they were waiting for the right moment.

     I started to feel as if my skin was burning again, it felt as if it was another part of me trying to surface. The other ghouls seemed as if they were responding to this feeling by stepping away from me. I stepped towards them and they began to try to move around me. When I continued forward they all ran past me and left the area. “What the hell!? Why are they leaving?” I uttered out falling to my knees.  My head started spinning out of control, then I started to hear a ringing in my head. A loud uncontrollable ringing that I could not control. Stop, it was starting to drive me crazy. I suddenly just got the urge to hit something. I started punching the ground and the walls around me. Rage, all I could feel was rage. Then just like that, it was gone, nothing but me and the broken tiles. I tried to regain control of my breathing as I stood up, I stumbled a little, but managed to regain my balance. “D-Dove, open up. I got rid of the creatures.” The door slowly creaked open and I could hear faint breathing, with horror I opened the door to see Jack half eaten and Dove missing half of her leg. It looked like the creatures were able to find out how to travel through the ventilation shafts and got the upper hand. Tears came to my eyes as I picked up Dove in my arms and she put her arms around me. “Big brother, am I going… to die?” Her question was too much for me, I couldn’t force words to come out, as if I went completely hoarse. 

     This was my fault, if I had been faster, if I had been stronger, Jack would still be alive. If I wasn’t so weak, Dove would still be able to stand. Someone had to be held accountable for this, someone had to own up to this disaster. “Echo Team, report…. Echo report!” I glanced at Doves radio with a blank expression, I didn’t know what to think at this point. Dove looked at me, barely clinging to live, “Orange eyes fits you, Demyan.” What did she mean by orange eyes? Is she just saying random things from all of the blood loss? I took my assault pack off and took out some bandages and a tourniquet. I had to stop this bleeding before I lost another team member. Dove cried out in pain, but I just kept going, knowing it was for the best. After I was done, I put her on my back and started to make my way back to Velvet. Surprisingly enough, I didn’t run into any problems on the way back. I swiped the keycard and entered the room, closing it quickly behind me. When I turned around, Velvet had the gun I left and pointed directly at Dove, “She was bitten, Demyan, we have to do this.”

     I looked coldly into Velvets eyes and she started to tremble, her hand was shaking but her finger stayed on the trigger. “If you fire that weapon Velvet, I won’t hesitate to kill you.” Those words slipped right of fof my lips so easily, I felt different from how I was before. I wouldn’t harm others without a just reason, but for some reason seeing her with a gun pointed towards me set something off inside of me, and it wasn’t pleased. “I-I’m sorry Demyan, I didn’t mean to come off the wrong way. Where is your other friend? Jack I believe his name was, did you find him too?” I tried not to show any emotion, I just couldn’t hold it in though. “Jack, Jack is dead Velvet.” “Damnit!” she said as she punched the wall next to her. This was going too far, in just a short amount of time we’ve managed to lose control of the situation and teammates. I had to do something, but what could I do? I couldn’t stop the spread of ghouls that made it outside of the facility, that had to be handled by the local law enforcement and the military. Maybe I could stop the ghouls that are still inside from making it out. Wait a minute! It had just dawned on me that Jack was dead and Dove was here in my custody, what happened to the doctor!?

     Dove was out cold and it wouldn’t be humane to wake her up to questions about the doctor. For now I could only hope that he was still alive and somewhere away from the ghouls. “Velvet is there any way that you might be able to close the main gate from here?” She looked at me for a second her face full of thought, she then pulled a PDA out from her jacket and started pushing some buttons. She seemed very focused on what she was doing and didn’t look up much at me, who was still waiting for an answer. After about ten minutes of her pressing things and typing is codes she looked up with relief. “Yes Demyan I was able to log into the security systems gates and put them into lockdown mode. It should only take about thirty minutes for them to reboot, power on, and then close.” This was great news, it was at least a start to trying to fix this mess. “My father said he was on his way here to help contain this situation, I believe he is bringing a team with him that is supposed to specialize in this type of thing. Do you know anything about that?”

     “Shit not those guys again,” she said moving into a seat. “What’s the deal with them?” “You can say they are the classified version of special forces, just for this company though. I don’t like them, the way they operate is inhumane. It doesn’t matter if you’re a child, if they are given the order to kill you, they will pull the trigger without thinking twice. I’ve worked with them in the past, they only care about themselves and the mission. They have no feelings, no weaknesses, no emotions outside of their will to finish the mission no matter what. The perfect soldiers I guess you can say.” “They sound dreamy,” I said trying to lighten the mood. Velvet laughed a little bit and put her hand on her side. “Are you alright Velvet?” “I’ve seen worse, trust me I’ll be fine. Besides one of the benefits of working in the security department is they give you a healing serum. It takes a bit but it will forsure heal any physical damage you may receive. Not like the virus you were injected with though, no you’ll heal instantly. I’ve seen it with my own eyes. They injected a test subject with it, when they cut his skin with a scalpel the skin started healing immediately. It was incredible, technology has advanced so much.” 

     I thought about what she told me for a moment. I wonder if she would be able to tell me more about what I was injected with, it was worth a shot for sure. “Tell me Velvet, do you know anything about the virus I was injected with? Any knowledge of it will be greatly beneficial at this point.” “I could try, but don’t be disappointed if I don’t know too much about it. Security of the company is my job, not virus development.” She pulled out her PDA again and took out a chip from it. “Prick your finger with this and then put it in the PDA,” she said handing it to me. I did as I was instructed and handed everything back to her. I could hear the PDA beep as it started to analyze my blood. “Hmmm, well according to my PDA it’s never recorded any data from this type of virus. I can however see some of the characteristics that it relates to, I’ll just tell you about those then. Well first it seems your DNA has been altered and your bone structure has changed as well, very interesting it’s like it’s changing your body to the perfect human. It seems as if it has granted you strength, agility, sharper senses, and of course the ability to heal. However every good has a bad, it seems as if it's plagued you with the Rage side effect. “

     Rage side effect? What did she mean by that? “What do you mean by Rage side effect?” “I’ve only seen it in two other subjects. It tries to take over your body, it fights its host for control. The first subject beat it just fine and was able to harbor his abilities, however the other, the other subject fell victim to it.” after saying that she seemed to have a face full of bad memories. “What happened when he fell victim Velvet?” “Lets just say, we’re still repairing that side of the building. She killed so many people that day. We tried to contain her but were unsuccessful, she escaped and we have countless teams looking for her.” Hearing this made me feel a deep fear from within. What if I don’t win? What if it takes over my body? That would result in the deaths and destruction of so many. How was the first subject able to do it? “Velvet, where is the first subject located now?” “I don’t know, that info is classified even for someone like me. I guess every company has their secrets huh.” “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that one.”

    “ _ ECHO TEAM REPORT! _ ” I looked at Doves radio and took it off her shoulder. Velvet looked at me and waited to see what I would do. “Velvet, I need a favor from you. Tell them Echo team is...dead.” She looked at me in surprise as if she expected me to actually report back to them. “But Demyan don’t you want to go back to your headquarters and explain what happened?” “No, if I go back they’ll discharge Dove and put me in a lab to be poked and tested for the rest of my life.” She looked at me and smiled. “Reaver-Echo team is dead.” “Velvet! Is that you?”


End file.
